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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25620874">Enchanted</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyHalfling/pseuds/NerdyHalfling'>NerdyHalfling</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Smol Naddpod Things [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Not Another D&amp;D Podcast (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:00:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25620874</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyHalfling/pseuds/NerdyHalfling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you" </p><p>Gemma and Hardwon's relationship is a whirlwind of new experiences, in the best possible way. </p><p>Songfic to Enchanted by Taylor Swift.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gemma Bronzebeard/Hardwon Surefoot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Smol Naddpod Things [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826578</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Enchanted</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>There I was again tonight forcing laughter, faking smiles</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Same old tired, lonely place</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Walls of insincerity</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Irondeep high was dull. The teachers were good, and she had friends and things to do, but there was an undeniable fog of repetition to it, and it didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Gemma went to school, met the same people, took the same classes, saw the same handful of rooms and ate mostly the same food. Nothing new ever happened. She wasn’t sure exactly when it had started to bore her, but by the middle of junior year it all felt like she was caught in a saturday morning cartoon in which no one ever changed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t like high school didn’t have its challenges, but the game of staying on top was starting to feel more like just that, a game, and less like the life and death situation it had once felt like. Smiling, laughing at the right jokes, rolling her eyes at the right people, it felt like she was just going through the motions. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then came Hardwon Surefoot. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>To her he seemed to turn up from nowhere. Suddenly her friend Carla was talking about the new charity case in her Geography class, some dude from the foster care system who surely didn’t belong at a proper school like Irondeep High, but there he was, and when her eyes fell upon him in the hallway she found herself unable to go through the motion of rolling her eyes and nodding at Carla’s not-quite-low-enough words. He was impossible to miss, being taller than anyone else at school, and seeming completely out of place. His clothes were decent enough that he could have passed as just any student, if he didn’t look so lost in them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Carla made another comment, but just then the guy was approaching their group, no not the group, Gemma. His eyes didn’t linger too long on her, clearly not wanting to be caught staring, but they kept returning, and when he halted right by them, she was the one his attention was focused on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I’m new here, would you mind showing me the cafeteria?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rules were clear, she was to turn him down, but instead Gemma smiled, feeling the shocked looks her friends gave her when she replied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure, I’m Gemma.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hardwon,” he said, and together they left the four girls who could not believe what was happening, headed for the cafeteria. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hardwon changed everything. He was a breath of fresh air, and everything he said challenged the stiff routine of Gemma’s life. During that first lunch together she found herself laughing, a real, genuine laugh at something silly he said. He was snarky, and so much of the conversation revolved around countering each other’s quick remarks, being ready for whatever the other threw out there, until one of them snorted in defeat and the conversation moved on. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Of course, once lunch was over and Gemma found herself sharing a classroom with Hardwon she was more than a little bit distracted by his presence. Forcing herself to look up at the board, and pay attention to the teacher had never been more of a challenge, but somehow she managed well enough that when a note landed on her desk she first assumed it was from Carla or Heidi. She opened it, expecting a question about her behavior during lunch break, but instead she was met with messy handwriting that couldn’t be from either of her friends. Riddled with spelling errors, which she hated that she even noticed, the messy font asked her if she wanted to do something after school, like getting ice cream maybe? Looking up she met Hardwon’s glance and gave a quick nod. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gemma always considered that afternoon their first date. She’d taken him to her favorite ice cream place, and getting ice cream had turned into driving around town, showing him around, taking turns showing each other their favorite songs. She told him about growing up in Irondeep, and he told her about moving around a lot. On a parking lot in a part of town she didn’t typically hang they got into a heated conversation about Kid Kobold, of whom Gemma was not a fan, before Hardwon scoffed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I guess you’re entitled to your own taste in music, even if it’s objectively wrong.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Gemma just laughed and shrugged it off, and a silence fell over them, one that she didn’t feel the need to fill with anything. For a while they just sat there, until Hardwon spoke up. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, for like taking me under your wing,” he said, a sudden sincerity to his voice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, thank you,” she said, although she was pretty sure he didn’t understand what she thanked him for.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her father had been annoyed when she came home in the evening of course, but it had been worth it. And it continued to be worth it. Over the next few months the two of them grew far closer than Gemma was to any of her other friends. It wasn’t a dance on roses, but Rust’s general assholey behavior and Wilhelm’s disapproval of how she was suddenly acting didn’t seem to be that important when they had each other. They’d dance in empty parking lots, exchange notes in class, discuss their dreams, laugh at how everyone else didn’t get them, and now and then they’d ditch class. They had their first kiss in her car while they were supposed to be in Trig. It was awkward and weird, but she liked it, and as they grew closer and they both got the hang of it the kisses got better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She told him about how she felt so restrained in her life, and he told her about his refusal to go by Elias. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So it’s my dad’s name, and he was never in the picture, so I don’t want to be like, tied to someone who never wanted anything to do with me.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She got that, or at least she tried to, and she would keep correcting anyone who called him anything but Hardwon even long after their ways parted, because they did, of course they did. Hardwon who’d been a bouncing ball in the foster care system wasn’t about to get to stay in one place just because he was happy there, or because she finally had someone to make it feel like something mattered, the great big world didn’t care about the feelings of two teenagers who finally felt like they were in the right place. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The last night she snuck out to meet him, not even her father would stop her from having these last few hours with him. A lot of it was spent in silence in her car, with each their drive-thru burger that neither of them really felt like eating. They danced on the parking lot again, as the night grew cold around them. For years to come Gemma’s mind would return to that night when she felt lonely, which would be quite often. Her sister would learn not to bother her when she was playing Kid Kobold way too loud. Hardwon’s future friends in turn would learn that he was an excellent builder of metaphorical walls, but that a single reference to Gemma would make the walls crumble. That was for the future though, now they danced until they had to stop, the sun was about to rise, and they both needed to be in their beds come morning. Finally they said goodbye. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gemma Bronzebeard,” Hardwon said, pulling back from their embrace just enough to look her in the eyes. His voice was just as sincere as it had been that first day. “You are the most incredibly girl I’ve ever met, and I’m honored to have gotten to know you. I’ll never forget you, I swear.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hardwon,” she said, her voice shaking, “thank you for giving me a taste of something different, of how good things can be. It has been enchanting.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p>
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